Suffer in Darkness No Longer, Let's Play Doom 3: BFG Edition

[Blastinus]

(Content Warning: Blood, Gore, Demonic Imagery, and Poorly-Modeled NPC's)



The Story so Far

Even if you don't have an interest in first-person shooters, I'd be surprised if you didn't know what Doom was. The first two games were 90's as heck, with wall-to-wall monsters, a rocking soundtrack, countless hidden secrets, and of course, parent-upsetting levels of blood that would become a mainstay of FPS games for close to a decade. Then in 2004, Id Software tried an experiment. Shooter games were slowing down, becoming more story-driven, and games were constantly coming out with new, shiny technology innovations. If they were going to compete in this ostensibly more thoughtful marketplace, they couldn't just make another game about mowing down monsters to slamming music with copious amounts of blood and guts. That'd be RIDICULOUS. It was time to make a Doom game with a story, with characters and drama, with foreboding atmosphere and oppressive darkness that could be hiding monsters anywhere. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, they could put such emphasis on the horror that you're only facing one or two monsters at a time. They could have a weak color palette that just makes everything a myriad of grayish colors. They could give you a flashlight that can't be held at the same time as a gun. More on that later. To say that Doom 3's release had mixed opinions would be putting the issue lightly. Even with the release of its expansion, Resurrection of Evil, in 2005, the game received a general response of, "This would be good if it weren't for that stinkin' flashlight."

Now, I loved Doom 3 when I was younger, despite its flaws. I was huge on horror and the game checked all the right boxes for me, even if I had to admit that I absolutely despised the flashlight as well. So imagine my surprise when in 2012, it was announced that Zenimax, now in ownership of the Doom license, would be releasing a bundled re-release of Doom 1, 2, and 3, complete with expansion, and wouldn't you know it, they fixed the flashlight so you can actually use it while shooting. So, everything's perfect, right? Well...not entirely. A few more things were changed about the game for this release, known as the BFG Edition, and not all of them for the better. I'll show you what I mean as we go along.

The Format

This is going to be a video LP with solo voice commentary inserted sparsely throughout. Doom 3 is a very atmospheric game and I'd prefer to let it speak for itself most of the time, unless I want to point something out. I'll try to upload at least once a week, schedule permitting.

Cheesy as the story may be, there are some things that I'd like to keep a surprise, so No Spoilers, Please.

List of Videos

Doom 3

Part 1: Mars City
Part 2: Mars City Underground
Part 3: Mars City Revisited
Part 4: Administration
Part 5: Alpha Labs 1
Part 6: Alpha Labs 2
Part 7: Alpha Labs 3
Part 8: Alpha Labs 4
Bonus 1: It's 2004, Baby!
Part 9: EnPro
Part 10: Comm Transfer
Part 11: Communications
Part 12: Monorail Skybridge
Part 13: Recycling Sector
Part 14: Monorail
Part 15: Delta Labs 1
Part 16: Delta Labs 2a
Part 17: Delta Labs 2b
Part 18: Delta Labs 3+4
Part 19: Hell
Part 20: Delta Complex
Part 21: Central Processing
Part 22: Central Server Banks
Part 23: Site 3
Part 24: Caverns 1
Part 25: Caverns 2 and Doom 3 Ending

Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil

Part 26: Erebus 1
Part 27: Erebus 2
Part 28: Erebus 3
Part 29: Erebus 4
Part 30: Erebus 5
Part 31: Erebus 6
Part 32: Phobos Labs 1
Part 33: Phobos Labs 2
Part 34: Phobos Labs 3
Part 35: Phobos Labs 4
Part 36: Hell

Doom 3: The Lost Mission

Part 37: EnPro 1
Part 38: EnPro 2
Part 39: Mars City Underground
Part 40: Exis Labs
Part 41: Hell Outpost

Bonus 2: Nightmare
Bonus 3: Mods

[Blastinus]

Reserved for just in case.

[Blastinus]

Part 1: Mars City

In our first chapter, we're introduced to all the principal players of this plot, including our protagonist: a nameless, perpetually-scowling marine transfer to the Union Aerospace Corporation's research facility on the surface of Mars. A first for the series, it's an entire level where you don't shoot anyone or anything. Don't get used to that.

Let me know if my audio levels are okay. This game likes its industrial noises and hissing steam pipes, so even with audio ducking, it's sometimes difficult to get a word in.

[Blastinus]

Part 2: Mars City Underground

Our search for the missing scientist leads us to a decommissioned comm facility in the gritty underbelly of Mars City. I hope you enjoyed the relative peace of Part 1, because everything is about to get very loud.

Those of you who are familiar with Doom 3 will notice the new flashlight immediately. It runs on Half-Life 1 rules where it has a limited battery life but recharges so quickly that it doesn't end up mattering in the end. I might put out a video of this level through the lens of the original, just so we can see the difference.

Another more subtle change is with health stations. The original Doom 3 gave health stations variable starting numbers. Sometimes it'd be 100, sometimes 80, sometimes 50. Here, it's 100 all the way.

[Mopey Dick]

Really glad to see this being LP'd; I've got a lot of memories of the original Doom 3 from back when it came out but never tried the BFG edition. I honestly don't think this game deserves the bad reputation it has, even if it is a massive departure from the classical gameplay and style.

[Blastinus]

Really glad to see this being LP'd; I've got a lot of memories of the original Doom 3 from back when it came out but never tried the BFG edition. I honestly don't think this game deserves the bad reputation it has, even if it is a massive departure from the classical gameplay and style.

Well, I wouldn't be LPing the game if I didn't love it. Despite all its warts and underwhelming elements, the horror atmosphere is what keeps sucking me back in, especially the sound design where everything is creaking and hissing and sometimes you can swear that you hear the walls whispering to you. It's brilliant stuff.

[Rea]

I played BFG Edition back in 2012 but I legitimately cannot remember any of it. This should be an interesting watch.

Are you gonna do Resurrection of Evil too, or just base Doom 3?

[Blastinus]

I played BFG Edition back in 2012 but I legitimately cannot remember any of it. This should be an interesting watch.

Are you gonna do Resurrection of Evil too, or just base Doom 3?

Yup! Base game, Resurrection, and the Lost Mission. We are getting the full BFG Edition experience.

[Blastinus]

Part 3: Mars City Revisited

It wasn't easy making it back to the surface, but here we are, and...the situation up top isn't much better. Still, our mission is to make it to Marine Command, and we'll do so by any means necessary. Let's just hope there's someone waiting for us when we arrive.

This level introduces us to the sheer destructive force of sentry robots. As long as you give even a token amount of effort to cover them, they are fully capable of tearing through hordes of enemies on their own. It's probably why we only see them for a few levels.

[Salted Grump]

This level also showcases how dogshit horrible the shotgun is, as it takes 2 shots at point-blank range to splat a regular zombie.

Its spread is also ludicrous; I'd suggest pointing it at a double-wide door and seeing how none of its pellets will hit within 2 feet of the aiming reticule.

[Blastinus]

Part 4: Administration

For a level that's effectively just a stepping-off point for the Alpha Labs, Administration has a few memorable events in it. We're going to be introduced to new weapons and monsters at a fast clip from here on out. It's still going to be the Imp Show by and large, but at least we're finally getting a little variety.

This level also showcases how dogshit horrible the shotgun is, as it takes 2 shots at point-blank range to splat a regular zombie.

Its spread is also ludicrous; I'd suggest pointing it at a double-wide door and seeing how none of its pellets will hit within 2 feet of the aiming reticule.

Oh come on, it can't be as bad as-



Yeah, you might have a point.

[Blastinus]

Oh, by the way, if anyone is curious about what the Martian Buddy website looked like, I've included a link here. Trying to search for Martian Buddy directly now just gets you a link to Bethesda's website.

[Mopey Dick]

I'm not sure what your setup on Youtube is but it shows your channel as having no videos, even if I'm subscribing - is that intentional?

[Blastinus]

That's probably because I've got the videos set to Unlisted. I can make them Public if that'd make it easier.

e: Aaaaaand done. Doesn't make a difference one way or the other. Just figure whatever makes it easier to watch them.

[Salted Grump]

Might want to fix your level 4 link; it feeds to the top of the mage instead of the video link it's clearly meant to.

[Blastinus]

And done. Thanks.

[TuxedoTed]

A bad shotgun in a DOOM game feels like a crime.

[Mopey Dick]

You really weren't kidding about the shotgun - just video 3 has about three examples of it being fired at pretty much point blank range and not hitting anything. Weird, I don't remember it being quite that bad.

I like how this game established the sledgehammer subtlety of character names for Doom forevermore: IIRC "betruger" is German for "swindler" or "cheat". It's a pretty short step from that to 2016's Dr S Atan.

e: 4 videos in and only 3 characters voiced by Steve Blum so far. Given the time of release, that's pretty tame. Especially compared to, say, Quake 4.

[theenglishman]

This LP thread earned a subscriber just for that great content warning.

[Blastinus]

Part 5: Alpha Labs 1

Now that we've explored the white-collar wing that supports the UAC's operations through HR and Finance, it's time to delve into the meat of their work here on Mars. The UAC prides itself on its safety record, and as we will see, everything here in this facility has been designed with safety in mind.

Somewhere.

They wrote it on a napkin once.

[Salted Grump]

During this video, you asked how they'd turn rust into water using lasers;

That's actually a real thing. Where lasers are used to remove rust from tooling, a side effect was the newly-freed oxygen reacting with the humidity in the air and forming condensation.

So, the Hydrocon system in Alpha Lab is basically the prototype for a large-scale unit that would strip oxygen from the iron sand of Mars (Which is why the Red Planet has its name), and then let ambient humidity do the rest.

[Mopey Dick]

I'd just like to say I'm really happy you're doing this LP because if I remember correctly the next area (or the one after that) brings in the reason I'm never playing this thing again.

[Blastinus]

During this video, you asked how they'd turn rust into water using lasers;

That's actually a real thing. Where lasers are used to remove rust from tooling, a side effect was the newly-freed oxygen reacting with the humidity in the air and forming condensation.

So, the Hydrocon system in Alpha Lab is basically the prototype for a large-scale unit that would strip oxygen from the iron sand of Mars (Which is why the Red Planet has its name), and then let ambient humidity do the rest.

That makes a lot of sense, and would actually be a decent experiment to conduct on Mars. Honestly, any of the experiments they're doing here in Alpha would be a better use of their time than trying to create teleporters, but it wouldn't be the UAC if they made something that didn't go off in their faces.

[TuxedoTed]

It's not like I have a lot of fond memories of this game to begin with, but this is a lot worse than I remember.

These videos are great, though!

[Aerdan]

I would respect Doom³ more if the game weren't basically full of jumpscare bullshit.

[Blastinus]

Part 6: Alpha Labs 2

Arachnophobes beware. From now to straight until the end of the LP, this game's going to have creepy-crawlies in abundance.

Alpha 2 is overall a step down from Alpha 1 in my opinion, consisting mostly of gray warehouses and a labyrinthine coolant storage substructure that contains one of my least-favorite FPS cliches. I promise that next update should be a bit more entertaining than this one.

[Salted Grump]

On the bright side: 'Ho Ho Ho, Now I have a Chaingun'

On the less-bright side: This level. Whomever thought an escort through a pitch-black series of same-looking rooms and semi-corridors was a good idea needs to be kicked in the ass until they're wearing it as a hat.

One thing that Doom 3 does do that I like? You'll never get attacked while inside a crawlspace or vent; you'll always have some mobility options at your disposal when in a fight, which is more than some other games will give you.

[Mopey Dick]

Right, Trites. On one hand, their introduction is surprisingly effective horror for how short a time it lasts - you see the webbed corpse, get into the vents, tear through webs, hear them moving around and even see one's shadow before they attack you proper. On the other, fuck giant spiders in games, playing on phobias is the cheapest scare of all.
And as you mentioned, they are *really* good at triggering arachnophobia, despite having very few features of an actual spider - IIRC, they only have six legs and the "body" is an upside-down human head. It's all in the way they move.

I'd like to think that if this game was more popular, someone would have made a System Shock 2-style spider-less mod, but as things stand, well, I'm really glad you're LPing this because fuck playing it.

[Blastinus]

Right, Trites. On one hand, their introduction is surprisingly effective horror for how short a time it lasts - you see the webbed corpse, get into the vents, tear through webs, hear them moving around and even see one's shadow before they attack you proper. On the other, fuck giant spiders in games, playing on phobias is the cheapest scare of all.
And as you mentioned, they are *really* good at triggering arachnophobia, despite having very few features of an actual spider - IIRC, they only have six legs and the "body" is an upside-down human head. It's all in the way they move.

I'd like to think that if this game was more popular, someone would have made a System Shock 2-style spider-less mod, but as things stand, well, I'm really glad you're LPing this because fuck playing it.

Yeah, I was originally going to have some commentary over the lead-up to the Trites, but then I realized that nothing that I said would be better than the game's own visual storytelling. When the game's being understated and letting tension build up gradually, it's actually fairly effective horror. The only trouble is that 90% of the time, it's instead throwing shouty monsters in your face with loud noises and jumpscares. The Trites are a decent demonstration of the potential this game had, and I wish that there was more of that.

[Blastinus]

Part 7: Alpha Labs 3

After the tedium of last episode, I figure we could use a palate cleanser, and Alpha 3 is eager to provide. This is easily one of my favorite levels so far. It's well-lit, has constant encounters and avoids the cheap scares of prior levels. If the game could have kept this same level of energy up all the time, I think it would have been fantastic.

[Blastinus]

Part 8: Alpha Labs 4

Our journey through Alpha finally comes to an end, and what an end it is; multiple paths, out-of-the-way secrets, and a pretty fun boss fight. If you could divide the game up into titled chapters like the original Doom 1, this would probably be the point where Chapter 1 comes to an end. We've basically just been chasing after Bravo Team all this time and we haven't seen an inkling of a solution to the whole demon problem. That changes starting next level.

You may notice a slight increase in quality in this update. I've started uploading at 60 FPS, so it's a bit smoother. I'll be doing it this way from now on, so hopefully these should be nicer to watch.

[TuxedoTed]

That was a hell of a grenade bounce at 20:30. Do you play pool?

[Blastinus]

That was a hell of a grenade bounce at 20:30. Do you play pool?

Well, when the game hands you a million of them, you're bound to get one bounce that looks good eventually.

Here's a fun fact: the BFG Edition, in addition to seeding more items throughout the game, also raises the ammo count of each individual pickup. These boxes of grenades that would normally give you 5 in the original actually give you 8 in the BFG Edition, for instance. You could say that this dumbs down the game a bit since you'll never be at risk of running out of ammo, but honestly, as far as I remember it, conservation wasn't a huge part of the original either.

[Mopey Dick]

Huh. I definitely don't remember Vagary being this... unimpressive. Did she get changed for the BFG edition or was she always such a pushover?

[Blastinus]

Huh. I definitely don't remember Vagary being this... unimpressive. Did she get changed for the BFG edition or was she always such a pushover?

Well, here's the thing: I actually died to her three or four times before I used the take where everything went mostly right. Yes, you can crouch to dodge her telekinesis attacks, but they can come from any angle and, thanks to Veteran's damage multiplier, it only takes a few bad hits for things to go downhill, especially if you get hit from behind and knocked right towards her.

Actually, let me put this out to you guys: do you want to see the takes where I end up screwing up and getting myself killed? I've been editing that stuff out in order to avoid being bogged down, but it occurs to me that I'm making the game look simpler than it actually is.

[Salted Grump]

I said this in the discord, but to reiterate for posterity, my suggestion is this:

I'd suggest 1-2 deaths if they don't kill the flow, but for really frustrating moments where you die 5-10 times, just show off a death and say 'yeah, this happened a dozen times because of <bullshit flavour of the day>'

TomViolence, in his Alien: Isolation LP did the same thing, and it took out the tension in the first few videos when he admitted that he was splicing runs to cut out the deaths entirely; keeping a death or two in, then cutting back to where you died and 'showing it being done right' is, IMO, more cathartic.

[Blastinus]

I said this in the discord, but to reiterate for posterity, my suggestion is this:

I'd suggest 1-2 deaths if they don't kill the flow, but for really frustrating moments where you die 5-10 times, just show off a death and say 'yeah, this happened a dozen times because of <bullshit flavour of the day>'

TomViolence, in his Alien: Isolation LP did the same thing, and it took out the tension in the first few videos when he admitted that he was splicing runs to cut out the deaths entirely; keeping a death or two in, then cutting back to where you died and 'showing it being done right' is, IMO, more cathartic.

Sounds good to me. I'll approach it that way from now on. But first!



Bonus Update - It's 2004, Baby!

We've traversed pretty far, I'd say, so it's time for an intermission. I've discussed at length how I felt about the original Doom 3, but I figure it's better to just see it for ourselves by redoing Mars City Underground, but in 4:3 (Or pretty close to it. It's actually 1280 x 1024).

And since we're on a roll with making bad decisions, I decided to do the commentary live, so I'm going to be a lot more motor-mouthed than usual and you get to hear the occasional clacking of my abnormally-loud keyboard. Enjoy!

[Blastinus]

Part 9: EnPro

Energy Processing (or EnPro) is where the Plasma Gun truly shines. Plasma in this game is a byproduct of the reaction that makes the plant operate, and is therefore highly abundant in this level. Not to mention that the Plasma Gun in general is great for dealing with any monster that either throws destructible projectiles (like Imps) or comes directly at you (like Maggots). If you don't find the secret Plasma Guns hidden in the last couple levels, this level will be a crash course in its many applications, and it'll be great.

Significant quality increase this time around. I was informed by Artix that I'd been recording videos at streaming quality, which was making them kinda muddy. Little late to re-record everything that came before, but from here on out, things should be a lot crisper.

[Kibayasu]

I wasn't one of the ones that was completely down on the original intention of Doom 3 but I think later in the game is when having to switch between a tiny flashlight and the bigger weapons (and when you're fighting more dangerous enemies) is when it became a lot more annoying. That said it is kind of a shame because despite everything Doom 3 is still a mostly incredibly well designed game, especially for 2004.

[Mopey Dick]

That said it is kind of a shame because despite everything Doom 3 is still a mostly incredibly well designed game, especially for 2004.

Yeah. id Tech 4 games get a lot of flak but this has laid a solid foundation for a shooter that wasn't just a Call of Duty clone. I think it was better realized in Quake 4 and especially Wolfenstein 2009, but Doom 3 is still a good game on its own.
Well, except for those goddamn spiders.